


Spectral Situations

by Tentaculiferous



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: 100 situations, Aging, Drabble Collection, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Ghostly obsessions, I don't think anyone really dies-dies as in 'gone forever', Immortality, Obsession, Vignette, it is a series with ghosts after all...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:54:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29618088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tentaculiferous/pseuds/Tentaculiferous
Summary: An assortment of one-shots, ficlets, vignettes and drabbles done for prompts. All are Gen.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 31





	1. Accusation - Jazz

"Jazz is a ghost!"  
  
"I am not a ghost!" she shrieked as she ran from her father.  
  
She was here after all, wasn't she? They could see her.  
  
As she slammed the door of her bedroom behind her, frantically sliding the deadbolt in place, an image flashed in her mind, the way it often did these days when her parents talked of ghosts.  
  
The way the bridge had looked last November as she drove home after the Yearbook Committee meeting. She hadn't been driving that fast. It was pitch black out after all, even though it was only 5 o'clock. But she was trying to make it home before the snow started. Jazz wasn't sweating it though, not really. The sky was still clear and dark as she mentally reviewed the dates and facts that would be on the history exam the next day. Maybe it happened because she was distracted trying to remember when Abraham Lincoln had been born, or maybe she just wasn't experienced enough yet as a driver to deal with black ice.  
  
She was snapped out of her recitations by the scrape of the car on the frozen patch. A few brief, terrified moments of confusion as she struggled to get the car back under control, not even realizing she was screaming. Then, darkness.  
  
When she awoke, she ignored the crumpled metal and the smoke coming from her car. Likewise, she had little interest in the rapidly cooling corpse slumped behind the wheel. Wrestling the door open, and giving it a quick shove took care of that. Jazz didn't bother to watch as the body tumbled end over end into the water. There was a test to study for. She still had to make valedictorian after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if any of these are worth reading or if anyone will enjoy them...but figured I might as well start collecting them somewhere anyway ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> I'm sure it's been done a million times, but I always liked the idea that Jazz actually is a ghost.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated ^^


	2. Old - Danny

Tucker was such a cute old man, Danny thought. He thought it every time he saw his friend's wizened form, which was at least once a week. His friend had lost most of his hair, and his face was covered in wrinkles, but the smile and laugh lines were the deepest, showing the good and fulfilling life Tucker had led.

Not that Tucker could remember that life, or even who Danny was. But he was usually happy to see Danny anyway. Danny wished he could have gotten old alongside his friend, maybe be staying in Amity Park Care Center with him, able to play Doomed 42 with him every day and watch his friend flirt outrageously with the nurses that were 60 years younger than him.

But Danny had never aged. He still looked like a 14 year old, whether in human or ghost form. Jazz had told the staff that he was Tucker's grandson. Hmm, maybe having to call Tucker "Grandpa" when the staff were in the room was contributing to his confusion over who the heck Danny was...

That, and the lack of Sam. Her and Danny had been glued to each other's side for the past 70 or so years. She'd passed last year. Cancer. Danny had hoped to reunite with her ghost, but he wasn't surprised when a ghostly Samantha Manson never turned up. Although she'd have enjoyed being a supernatural creature, she, like Tucker, had led an extremely accomplished and happy life, and passed to the other side with no regrets.

Danny was usually happy too, surrounded by children and grandchildren that loved him and helped keep his immortality a secret, kept him sane as he watched everyone he knew slowly disappear over the years, lost to illnesses and accidents and just the passing of time.

There were dark spots sometimes though, nights where he couldn't sleep and was overcome by his fears. That he would truly live forever and watch everyone around him die through the ages, eventually giving up on loving anyone since being attached hurt. And his deepest fear, that he couldn't speak even to himself—that he'd never again see Sam or his parents or anyone else he loved. He tried to console himself with the scientific facts. At the very least, the sun would burn out one day, the planet would end, and surely that would destroy him, let him cross over. He'd see her then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danny as an immortal. Kind of sad, but I thought old man Tuck was cute. I swear I have some fluffy totally happy drabbles somewhere....
> 
> I suppose this one kind of hints at Danny/Sam, but I didn't consider it strong enough to justify keeping it out of a gen collection.
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated ^^


	3. Stuck - Danny & Valerie

"What game are you playing, Phantom?" Valerie hissed.

She was hovering on her board only a foot from his face. 

"What? I'm not playing any game, I'm stu—haha, yeah, game. This is fun." 

That he was immobilized, stuck phased halfway through a wall, was the last thing Danny wanted to reveal to a ghost hunter that was deadset on killing or capturing him. 

"Seriously, why are you just hovering there like that?" Valerie asked. Her face was twisted in suspicion, as if she thought it were some peculiar heinous trap he was setting for her. 

Danny tried to activate his intangibility, but the feeling of going intangible just fizzled out before it could complete. On the interior part of the building, Danny could feel his ghost tail wiggling furiously. 

"Are you kidding me? This move is really great for building your ghost abs." Danny said. 

Fuck. It didn't look like he was getting out of here any time soon. 

His back end was safe inside the abandoned warehouse. But from torso up, he was sticking out where anyone could see him that walked by the dirty alley. And he had an angry ghost hunter right in front of his face.

"Whatever you're playing at, I'm not falling for it." Valerie said. She aimed her blaster at his head. At this range, he could feel the heat and energy rolling off the charged anti-ghost weapon. Danny froze, his eyes squinted shut as he winced away in anticipation of the shot. 

But it never came. Slowly, he opened his eyes, only to be met with the sight of the Red Huntress slowly retreating on her board. She glared at him as she receded from view, her weapon still out and ready. 

"Phew." he breathed a sigh of relief. For some reason, Valerie was leaving him alone. A sense of fairplay? Her suspicious nature working agains her, making her convinced this was some ruse on his part? It didn't matter, he would take what he could get. 

"Now I just have to get out of here before someone else comes along." he groaned. There were so many worse enemies of his that could stumble upon him. Skulker, Vlad, his parents...His parents. 

"Shit." he whimpered. "I'm gonna be late for curfew again!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In any canon where intangibility or phasing is possible, "stuck in a wall" fics are inevitable...and always fun IMO.


	4. Jazz - Envy

All the things they said about her were true...she was a meddler, nosy, a suck-up and a teacher's pet. It's not like she wanted to be those things—well okay, she didn't think there was anything wrong with showing an interest in other's well-being, in being involved in their lives, or in trying to make a good impression with teachers!

But Jazz did wish sometimes, that she could relax a little. That deadlines and due dates and GPAs would float out of her mind as easily as they did her peers. She envied them sometimes. Sure, she achieved more, but was it because she was actually more deserving, more intelligent, more hardworking? Or just because she had a nagging voice in her brain that wouldn't let her do anything other than obsessively work towards maximizing achievements?

The thought of wandering around the mall aimlessly, or sprawling on a couch somewhere chatting about nothing and everything with other girls, made her skin break out in itchy, painful hives. All those empty, meaningless hours wasted that could be spent making sure the next AP History exam came back with an A+ and not an A, or God forbid, an A-.

Even when her homework was done and triple-checked, her mock exams aced over and over, her idea of "relaxing" once she was free from those nagging deadlines, was to catch up on the latest research in psychology and neurobiology, or reading college-level textbooks to try and get a leg up on the future competition.

Any potential advantage couldn't be allowed to slip from her grasp. They had to be seized. It was honestly, exhausting at times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jazz is one of my favorite characters. But her extreme commitment to overachieving and her total lack of friends (as far as we can tell) always seemed to hint to me that things were not all hunky-dory with her. A bad thing with certain problems like OCD, perfectionism, and being a workaholic is that they can give the outward markers of success, so the person seems to be doing *better* than other people. 
> 
> Kind of like how quiet kids are always seen as "well-behaved" when sometimes there's bad reasons for why a kid is extremely meek or quiet.


	5. Danny - Fail

"How does someone fail P.E?" his mother's voice was incredulous, trembling faintly with outrage. "He's not even fat. He doesn't have asthma. There's no excuse."

Although his parents were often critical of his grades, they were rarely _this_ critical when he was around. Right now, he was hearing what they said about him when he wasn't around. He'd slipped invisibly down from his room to hear his parents discussing the semester report card that had arrived in the mail.

The answer to how he'd failed P.E was obvious. It was a class with almost no homework, tests, or semester projects. Any points had to be earned in-class, and Danny was frequently _not_ in class, missing entire periods of gym or parts of it. Combine that with his lackluster achievements when running the mile or taking the presidential fitness test, and he'd ended up with a solid F.

It was a shame, because it meant he might as well have not wasted any time in gym at all, but he still had to show up as much he could or face even more detentions or even truancy court.

"We're going to have to make time to work with him on this." Maddie continued on, raking her fingers through her hair in exasperation.

"Aw Maddie, c'mon. Can't we just buy him a gym membership?" his crestfallen father asked.

Danny watched his mother glare at Jack.

"No. Lack of opportunity isn't the issue. It has to be a lack of discipline. I'll have him join me for some of my weight-lifting sessions each week. And you can take him jogging each morning—the doctor said you need to be exercising more anyway."

Danny rolled his eyes at his father's devastated look, and floated away. They weren't going to help him pass P.E next semester. It wasn't a lack of fitness that was his problem—there were plenty of weedy nerds that scraped by with a D or C. Participating was the biggest part of the grade.

At least any increased endurance and strength he gained from working out with his parents might help him with ghost fights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on the "the Fentons are flawed but still decent/good parents" side of the spectrum overall but I still hate how they dealt with his grades.
> 
> " _Get this straight Danny. You're a Fenton. Fentons get As. Or in your father's case, B minuses._ " --Maddie
> 
> I swear I saw red when I heard that line in the show. So toxic and just wrong...Anyway, that's the inspiration for this ficlet. It won't be the last time I write about the pressure they put on Danny to have perfect grades. It's probably part of why Jazz is the way she is too, if she was told that by Maddie. 
> 
> Any feedback is appreciated ^^


End file.
